1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a recording apparatus such as a printer in which one recording portion is commonly used for a recording medium having a low rigidity such as a paper and for a recording medium having a high rigidity such as a CD.
2. Description of Related Art
Various recording media recorded with recording apparatuses such as printers or the like have been proposed conventionally. There are compact thick recording media, such as CDs, DVDs, and cards (hereinafter referred collectively to as “CD” or “compact disc”). In a printer currently used widely, if a conveyance route for a single sheet is used when recording is made on the above recording medium, there arise problems, such as the rigidity makes the conveyance property worse, physical damage may occur, and conveyance is impossible due to the relation of distances between conveyance rollers. A tray for mounting a thick recording medium such as a CD is therefore used, and a single recording section is commonly used and made operable where a route different from the conveyance route for a single sheet is used.
Because a common single sheet used in a widely used printer has a low rigidity, there arises a problem regarding floating at the recording section. The recording medium having a relatively low rigidity such as a single sheet enters with an angle of 10 to 15 degrees with respect to the lower surface (hereinafter referred to as “platen”) of the recording portion, and is prevented from floating at the recording section upon being pushed to the platen. The nipping state of the conveyance roller for conveying the recording medium toward the recording section is therefore slanted. Generally, feeding rollers of a feeding section located on an upstream side in the conveyance direction of the conveyance roller are arranged in a vertical direction with respect to nipping portion of the conveyance roller in order to render effective introduction of the recording medium into the nipping portion of the conveyance rollers. This is because, where the conveyance route from the feeding rollers to the conveyance rollers is bent, a load may be produced at the recording medium during recording, detection accuracy of the front end position of the recording medium may be lowered, and paper jamming may easily occur. Therefore, where the conveyance route from the feeding rollers to the conveyance rollers is made substantially straight, the feeding rollers and a separation section of the feeding section are located obliquely above the conveyance rollers.
When recording is made on a recording medium having a relatively high rigidity such as a CD, a straightly extending conveyance route (hereinafter referred to as “conveyance route for rigid body”) is needed for conveying a tray mounting the CD as described above.
From this structure, it is necessary to arrange the structure so that the conveyance route for the rigid body and the feeding rollers as well as the separation portion do not interfere with each other at a rear portion or on an upstream side in the conveyance direction of the recording section. Therefore, in a conventional apparatus in which the single recording section is commonly used as described above, both of the above members are arranged as to escape from each other in the cross-sectional direction. For example, the apparatus is designed with some structure such that, e.g., (i) the feeding section is moved to a rear upward location, or upward on the upstream side in the conveyance direction, (ii) a method is adapted using a separation pad having a smaller projection on a lower side of the separation portion (on a conveyance route for rigid body) in comparison with the separation roller, or (iii) the entire feeding section is moved upward.
With the above structures, however, there arise problems such that, e.g., (i) the installation area of the apparatus becomes larger, paper jamming easily occurs due to the longer conveyance route for the recording medium, a recording medium having a short length in the conveyance direction may not be conveyed, and the time needed for recording the recording medium of one piece or sheet may become longer, (ii) the separation property may be worse, and (iii) the apparatus height may become higher and the recording medium may not easily be loaded into the nipping portion of the conveyance rollers.